The Merge
by Dr. TechnoBabel
Summary: A look at what would happen if the universes converged on each other during the most turbulent time in Marvel history, as well as the long-term ramifications.
1. Chapter 1

[Author's Note: Hey guys, this is my first fanfic on this site, and as such it's going to have a rather unconventional format. These will be a series of one-shots that, while all connected by the world they take place in and an overarching story in the background, will focus on different characters and situations that arise as a consequence of what happens when these worlds merged. However, a prologue is needed to kick things off, and as such, the first two or three will take place a few years before the rest of the stories will, unless I decide to keep them all in this time, which might be a possibility. I'll also try to alternate between a Marvel and a Capcom POV, but again, that might change as we get further along. Anyways, hope you enjoy the series!]

Prologue

Civil War. That was the name given to the conflict that now plagued the superhero community. Ever since the Superhuman Registration act came into effect, there had been conflict between those agreeing with the idea that those with great power needed a little more supervision than normal people, and those who thought that the act was just the first step in restricting those with special abilities. And two of the world's mightiest heroes, Iron Man and Captain America, were the ones leading the charge. Once friends, this disagreement had lead them to be generals in a war that neither wanted, but both saw as necessary. However, an unknown force chose this time of turmoil to instigate what everyone would later call 'The Merge', forever changing what would come.

"Your future hinges upon this fight!"

Chris Redfield barely had time to react before he was sent flying through a stone wall. The sheer force of Wesker's kick would have been enough to break the bones of most men. But Chris Redfield was not most men. True, he had no special abilities, but he HAD spent more than enough time at the gym, training for this confrontation. But he did not think it would end up like this. Hell, he didn't think Wesker was even still alive. But he was, and he had Jill working for him now. He wished he had time to figure out what was going on, but Wesker was already closing the distance. He had to think fast.

He stood up, and realized that Wesker had kicked him right into a secret passageway hidden behind the wall. Wasting little time, he got up and shot Wesker. He knew that Wesker would dodge it, as he had through most of the fight, but it gave him the split-second he needed to run down the hall and lose his pursuer in the darkness. He radioed his partner Sheva, "We'll never win like this! Time to change tactics!"

"Run and hide?" she responded almost immediately. Chris could tell by her voice that she was already thinking the same thing. He heard Wesker taunt him in the background, but he ignored it. If Wesker wanted a fight, he'd have to find Chris first.

Albert Wesker walked out into the center chamber of the ruin, his eyes scanning the area for signs of his prey. Up on the alcove above, he saw his new toy eagerly keeping Chris' new partner occupied, as he had ordered her to. Despite the delicious irony of having Jill be the one to kill her former partner, Wesker couldn't help but use this chance to kill Chris himself. He made it personal many years ago, after all.

Suddenly, he caught it in his vision. A shadowy figure flitted across the wall underneath one of the balconies. He wouldn't have even noticed if not for his enhanced eyesight, another benefit of the virus now coursing through his veins. _Found you, _he thought, and charged at the figure with superhuman speed. He predicted that he could crush Chris' skull within seven seconds.

What he did not predict, however, was the figure fighting back, and managing to actually dodge the blow and strike back with amazing force. For once, Wesker was the one sent flying backwards into the main chamber. He managed to catch himself as he fell, landing on his feet, but the assailant charged again. Wesker attempted to slam his palm into the man's sternum, but his opponent parried the arm away before punching Wesker in the face and sending him sprawling to the floor.

Wesker got up, and started to back off. His opponent had the element of surprise, and more importantly, was actually managing to outmaneuver him in hand-to-hand combat. While any other day he would love to spend time fighting someone who could actually challenge him, he knew that doing so would eat away what time he had left. He glared back up at Jill, who had actually managed to pin Sheva to a wall, and yelled, "Ignore her! Take care of our new arrival!"

Chris came out through one of the side passages onto the balcony overlooking the main room. He had been preparing to sneak up and attack Jill, but when he heard Wesker shouting, he glanced down at him. Wesker was actually starting to run away from something, and it took Chris a minute to realize what he was looking at. It looked like a man, but his choice of attire seemed… very odd, to say the least. He was covered from head to toe in a completely black suit, which made him even harder to see. However, Chris could make out two tiny protrusions on the top of his head that reminded him of cat ears. Come to think of it, the way this man gracefully pursued his target reminded Chris of a great cat on the hunt.

His thoughts were interrupted by Jill, who let out an animalistic scream and leap from the balcony onto the man. The man turned and managed to catch Jill in midair, but she managed to twist her legs around his neck as they crashed to the floor. As the two struggled on the ground, Chris caught a glimpse of Wesker retreating out the exit of the ruin. By now, Sheva had gotten up from the ground, and walked up to him, "What's going on?" she said, looking over the balcony at the fight below.

"Not sure," Chris replied, "But whoever that guy is, he probably just saved our lives."

Chris and Sheva ran down the stairs as Jill went flying across the room, slamming into one of the pillars nearby. The man in black got up, and with a speed that was closer to Wesker's than his own, charged forward and slammed his fist into her stomach, beginning a relentless assault on the woman now beneath him.

It was then that Chris noticed it. Under the blue jumpsuit that Jill was wearing, Chris saw a faint, pulsating red oval starting to appear. He then knew why Jill had fought him. Without thinking, Chris ran up and grabbed the man by the shoulder. "That's enough!" he yelled, and attempted to yank him off Jill.

The man turned his head so that Chris could see his face, and he noticed that his eyes had a yellow covering over them, giving him an even more frightening appearance. He immediately turned his gaze to Jill. She was unconscious and bleeding, but alive. He turned back to the man, who had let go of Jill. He spoke to Chris in a heavy African accent, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"BSAA Agent Chris Redfield," he replied, "This is Sheva Alomar, my partner. We're here investigating a bioterrorist named Albert Wesker, who you had just driven away."

"Bioterrorist?" the man said with indignation, "If he was a big enough threat to warrant an arrival by agents of an organization that I have never even heard of until just now, then I would have been told." He grabbed Chris by the neck, "Do not take me for a fool, Chris Redfield. Intruders in Wakanda are dealt with harshly, and lying to the Black Panther does not help your case."

Sheva was confused. Black Panther? Wakanda? What was he talking about? She had lived in the area most of her life, and had never even heard of these places. By now, Sheva had also noticed the glowing on Jill's just, and had an idea on how to prove themselves to this… well, madman was the first term that came to mind. "If you want proof," she said, "take a look under that girl's jumpsuit. I think she's being mind-controlled by something."

The man stared at Chris for a long moment before dropping him into the ground and unzipping Jill's suit. They all saw an oval machine that looked almost like a large ruby with silver spider legs attached to Jill's chest. The Panther examined the device, and then spoke up, "I see. I think our scientists back in the city can get it off of her. If it does what you say it does, I _might _start believing you." He turned to them, "But that does not change the fact that you two are in my country illegally on a false authority. And even if you weren't, this is a restricted area to all outsiders."

Soldiers carrying large spears of a type that neither Chris nor Sheva had ever seen before entered, swarming the room. Chris and Shiva looked at each other. Whatever was going to happen, it wasn't good, and resisting would only make things worse. They surrendered their weapons as the Black Panther gave them a stern glare, "As the ruler of Wakanda and head of the Panther Tribe, you three are under arrest until further notice." He picked up Jill bridal-style, "Take them to the holding cells. I need to take this one to the medical labs. And put out an APB on one Albert Wesker. I want him found and interrogated about this whole mess."

Chris kept his eyes on Jill as he was being lead out of the ruins by force. He had just been reunited with her, found out Wesker was alive, and now he was under arrest for a crime he did not commit by a nation he had never heard of. This was going to be a weird day.


	2. Chapter 2

"What do you mean you cancelled the diplomatic tour? What has changed, T'Challa?"

Steve Rogers, better known to the world as Captain America, was fighting to keep from dropping the phone in his hand from confusion. He had not talked to the ruler of Wakanda since shortly after his marriage to Storm, and at the time, the Panther had talked of going on a diplomatic tour in order to strengthen international relations, while dropping hints that he would fight against superhuman registration, if it came down to it. Since then, he had heard little from the Black Panther, and it had taken Steve almost a week to get a secure phone line that wouldn't be traced by S.H.I.E.L.D. to talk to his friend. He paced the floor of the dingy apartment that was serving as a temporary safehouse for him as he awaited an answer to his question.

"Intruders in my country, Captain," the Panther replied with irritation creeping into his words, "We have three of them in custody now, and are still trying to sort out their credentials. And a fourth one, who the other three insist is a dangerous bioterrorist, has escaped my grasp and is now loose in Wakanda." Steve heard a sigh from the other end of the line, and the Panther continued, "Even if I had caught him and didn't have to organize a manhunt, the other three insist they are part of some organization called the BSAA and are in Wakanda legally."

"BSAA?" Steve asked, "Never heard of them. Are you sure they aren't just lying to try and cover whatever they were doing there?"

"That's the weird thing, Captain. They have official documentation, registration, identification, and as far as my people can tell, it all checks out. It is as if this organization, and these people, appeared overnight out of nowhere. I am still trying to find out how they got into Wakanda, but overall, this is looking like we are about to have a major diplomatic crisis on our hands. I am sorry, Captain, but I cannot leave Wakanda under these circumstances, and I cannot do anything to help you in your 'civil war'."

Steve rubbed his forehead, "I understand, T'Challa. Your country needs you right now." He checked the clock on the wall above the phone, ad realized he was cutting it close. If he stayed on the line much longer, there was a chance that someone would manage to find a way around the encryption on the phone signal and hack into it. "I need to go. Say hi to Ororo for me." With that, he hung up and let out a sigh.

He sat on the bed, brushing off a few pieces of peeled paint from the ceiling above him. The room itself looked like a disaster zone, with various pieces of paper and paint littering the floor. Steve swore he also saw some rats running around the place the night before. He was amazed the place wasn't condemned yet. However, he had bigger issues to worry about.

Ever since the Superhuman Registration Act went into effect, he had been fighting a war against his own country, and more importantly, against his own friends. While he did not think for a second that refusing to enforce the act and starting a resistance meant to show the world why heroes like himself did not need to be registered, it was hard to argue with the fact that this war was causing much more pain and suffering than necessary. He would have preferred a peaceful solution to the problem, but war was inevitable. Now, Steve was focused on trying to keep the moral high ground and ending this fight as quickly as possible, while his enemy resorted to increasingly unethical tactics such as blackmail, imprisonment, and even forcing supervillians to fight for him (if the rumors were true, that is). He might be fighting against the government, but that did not mean that he was abandoning the people for a second. He fought for them, not for himself… at least he hoped.

His thoughts were interrupted when the phone in the room suddenly started ringing. Steve stared at the cellphone on the nightstand by the bed in shock. _No one should have this number, _he thought to himself. But there it was, ringing in front of him in some techno version of whatever song was the default on these sorts of things. After a few seconds of debate, he decided to answer it. He was about to leave the safehouse anyways, so there was very minimal risk even if it was an enemy. He flipped open the cell and answered, "Hello?"

"It's me," responded a voice that was very familiar to Captain America. He sighed, and muttered under his breath. He should've seen this coming the second he relied on a cellphone to chat with someone.

"How did you get this number? This signal was supposed to be encrypted. Not even S.H.I.E.L.D. could-"

"Please," replied Tony Stark in a smug tone, "You should know by now that our side is the one with the technological superiority here. You may be able to keep Hill away from you guys, but that little encryption that I assume Cable set up child's play to Reed and I." Steve was about ready to throw the phone out the window and get the hell out of there when Tony spoke up with a pleading, desperate tone that the Captain hadn't heard from him in years, "Please don't hang up, Steve. We need to talk. I promise that there aren't any S.H.I.E.L.D. agents about to bust in the door."

"Fine," Steve said warily, "What do you want, Tony?"

"I want to talk, face-to-face. Have you seen the news lately?"

"No." Steve hadn't had much time to keep up with the news lately, being busy with leading his resistance movement and staying one step ahead of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Tony's 'Avengers'. He usually only heard about big events a day or two after they happened, or from someone who had an easier time staying hidden, if he was lucky.

"There's a chemical plant that my company owns. It's remote enough that no one should bother us. Meet me there in two hours." When he didn't get a reply, Tony continued, "Please, this is important. I promise that this isn't a trap, Steve. Feel free to bring as much backup as you need to feel safe."

Captain America stood in silence for a full minute before finally replying to his old friend, "Ok, fine. But I swear to God Tony, if you are lying, you will regret it." With that, he hung up, grabbed his coat, and left to find the others.

Two hours later, a black shadow appeared at the chemical plant that Tony had told Cap to meet him. Captain America stepped out of the shadow, along with Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Dagger. After a few seconds, the Cloak reverted back to his original form. Steve surveyed the area, noticing that while the area they were standing in was wide open, they were in the heart of the complex. That, combined with the numerous catwalks surrounding them, made it an excellent spot for an ambush, and made retreat on foot almost impossible. Then again, that's why Tyrone was here. At the first sign of trouble, they were to teleport out of the area and back to their main base.

It didn't take long before Steve saw Tony flying towards them in the most recent version of the Iron Man armor. Close behind him, Tony could see a red and gold figure swinging close to him. While the colors were different, Steve recognized the large, stylized eyes and unmistakable spider emblem on the chest as belonging to Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. From what he could tell, the two of them were the only ones coming to meet them. Either Tony had a group of his Avengers hiding in the catwalks waiting for ambush, or he really was desperate to come off as non-threatening to Steve. He wasn't sure which scenario was more comforting to him.

As Tony and Spider-Man landed on the ground, a beam of light came down from the sky, and materialized as it hit the ground into a figure that Steve had never seen before in his life. He was about half the size of Tony, with a red and white color scheme, and green orbs on his chest that reflected what light there was in a rather brilliant sheen. He had a grim look on his face, and except for his face and a long blond ponytail coming out of the back of his head, was completely covered in metal armor that at first glance looked even more advanced that the Iron Man armor. On closer inspection, however, Steve noticed the almost symmetrical perfection of the face, the eerie stillness of his body when he stopped moving, and a rather stoic expression. While to most people this would simply come off as unnatural, Captain America had seen a lot in his time, and was able to spot all the tells that marked a robot. The robot glared back at him as Tony walked up, "Good to see you actually came. I see you met Zero."

"Zero, huh?" Steve turned to face the metal faceplate covering Tony's head, "Another project of yours I'm assuming?"

"No, he isn't. I actually found him this afternoon wandering in Time Square with a few others like him yelling something about 'Mavericks'. In fact, this is part of what I wanted to talk to you about. Have you heard about what's going on out there?"

Luke Cage spoke up from behind Cap, "In case you forgot, I was chased out of my home and separated from my family for refusing to register with your little persecution movement, Stark. We all were. So cut to the chase, what's really going on?"

Spider-Man's head turned rapidly, glancing between all of them, "You mean… you guys really haven't heard? It's been all over the news. I mean, I knew you guys were underground, but I thought you were at least able to spring for some cable. Or at the very least the five cents for a newspaper or something…"

"The point that Peter's trying to make," continued Tony, "is that the world's gone to hell since this morning. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been trying to keep things quiet, but so far it looks like the story's going to burst any day now."

"What story?" Steve asked, raising a brow.

The robot spoke up for the first time since arriving, "That our worlds have collided, and somehow fused into one another. And not just ours. Several of them, at least 6 other were involved."

"And that's just our first estimate," Tony said, "The transition isn't even uniform. Some people and places have simply fused with their counterparts from the other dimension, while others just appeared or disappeared without warning."

"Like in Wakanda…" Steve muttered, and then spoke up, "I was chatting with Black Panther, and he said that some agents from something called the BSAA had shown up in Wakanda out of nowhere."

"Exactly," Tony replied, "And T'Challa's one of the lucky ones. Most of the governments in the world are in disarray over agencies like that just appearing out of nowhere, claiming they have full, legal jurisdiction out of nowhere. No one can agree who runs what anymore. We've got at least four different presidents arguing over who's running the White House, anarchy in most of the major cities… hell, our mayor was punched out by some bodybuilder wearing only suspenders and shoes claiming that he's the mayor of something called 'Metro City'. And that's just the political side of things… we've got a city in Nebraska that appeared out of nowhere and irradiated a good portion of farmland with nuclear fallout, there are reports of demon attacks in Rome originating from some island off the coast of Italy, land masses appearing and disappearing causing changes in ocean currents, rumors of an illegal superhuman fighting tournament in major cities worldwide, and from what Zero said, a damn machine uprising in progress somewhere! And that's just what we found out today."

Steve looked at his old friend in shocked silence. If what Tony said was true… then it was no surprise he thought he needed help. Tony's faceplate retracted, revealing the worried, haggard look on Tony's face, "I can't do this alone. The only organization that's keeping things together at the moment is S.H.I.E.L.D, and even they're starting to lose control of the situation. It's a shitstorm out there, and right now the world needs Iron Man _and _Captain America."

Both sides started at each other in silence for what felt like hours. Finally, Tony spoke up, "Look, I don't blame you for not trusting me. This war has brought out the worst in both of us. But right now, registration is the last thing on anyone's minds. There's serious talk about at the very least suspending the Registration act until this incident is all sorted out. Maria wanted to make the Act even stricter, but there's no way we can enforce it when we can't even decide who's currently in charge of the law, or what the law even is anymore, not to mention how many more superhumans have just appeared out of nowhere." He let out a sigh, and offered his hand "Come back to Stark Tower, Steve. We can go back to the way it used to be, and save the world once again, Avenger's style."

Steve stared at Tony for a long time before shaking his head, "No, Tony. It won't be how it used to be, not just like that." He watched Tony's face fall into disappointment, then continued, "But you are right. If all that is going on, we need to stop fighting amongst ourselves and get things under control."

Tony brightened up once more, "Great! Just follow me, and I'll make sure that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't touch you until-"

"Until you have things under control?" he snapped back, "No, if we're going to help, you need to grant us full amnesty, and kill the Registration Act once and for all. There is no way that anyone who isn't from here is going to agree to a law they never even heard of before, and to expect them to is unreasonable and unconstitutional." He glared at the man in front of him, "You want us back? Stop this war once and for all."

Tony sighed, "I'm not sure if I can… but…"

Captain America turned and walked back towards his group, "We will help you, but until you promise us that the Registration Act is good and dead, we'll do it our way." He turned back to face Tony one last time as Cloak enveloped them once more, and vanished, leaving Tony, Spider-Man, and Zero alone in the plant with their thoughts.


	3. Chapter 3

"Well, I think that could've gone better."

Zero didn't respond to the comment made by the human known as Spider-Man. He was still taking in his new surroundings, specifically the building that served as the headquarters for the Avengers. While most of New York City was extremely primitive technologically from Zero's perspective, he had to admit that Stark Tower was a large step in the direction Zero was accustomed to. Comparing the technology in the building to old archived files, he deduced that Stark was more or less on the same technological level that Dr. Light, X's creator, would've been around Stark's current age. An impressive feat in a world where plasma technology was only in the very earliest stages to most people, though he was surprised that he had not run into any sentient robots from this world so far. He considered asking Tony whether there were any at all at some point, but right now there were more pressing concerns on his mind.

Zero turned his attention to Tony as he entered the main sitting area. Outside the Iron Man suit, Tony Stark looked far less intimidating, at least from Zero's perspective. In fact, other than the overly clean-cut way he presented himself to his guests and the air of a man of wealth around him, one wouldn't be able to tell that he was the invincible Iron Man if he wasn't brazen enough to simply have everyone know who he was to begin with. Tony glanced at Zero and gave him a small smirk, "Don't mind Pete, he likes to run his mouth sometimes. It's not your fault that the Captain didn't really take to you."

"Hey!" Peter exclaimed, taking off his mask to reveal a face quite a bit younger than the middle-aged Tony Stark, "Not everything I say is me 'running my mouth'! Sometimes I just call them as I see them. With maybe a little bit of snark on the side." He jerked a thumb towards Zero, "Though he hasn't laughed at a thing I said since we've met."

Zero focused his attention on Peter, "Well, I'm sorry that I don't find your childish jokes at my expense funny, but we're in the middle of a interdimensional crisis, in case you haven't noticed."

"Oh, I have." He replied, "I'm just used to it by now. This is nothing compared to that one time that Hell opened up in New York. Or the time Wanda altered reality to make mutants the dominant race…"

"Peter…" Tony groaned with irritation.

"Or the time that we were all brought up onto this planet to fight each other to the death for a celestial being's amusement. Or the times Doom conquered the world…"

"Peter…"

"Oh, hey, this one's a little off-topic, but there was this one time that Tony's armor gained a mind of its own while he was still in it, and it turned him into a-"

"PETER!" Tony yelled, startling the young man. "I think he gets your point."

"Fine…" Peter groaned, then stood up, "I'm gonna go find MJ. At least she likes to listen to my stories…"

"Sure she does," Tony remarked, and Zero made a note to ask Peter about some of those incidents when Tony was not around. The more he knew about this world, the better.

As soon as Peter left the room, Zero turned to Tony and said, "So, how is he?"

The older man motioned for Zero to follow him to the elevator. Once they entered and the doors closed, Tony hit the button to head to the engineering labs. As they descended, he began to talk to Zero, "I have to be honest, I wasn't really sure what I was looking at when I first examined him. Your friend is certainly a marvel of technology. But…"

"But what?" he replied impatiently.

"But… he's sustained some pretty serious injuries, and while his memory cores appear intact, I can't seem to get him to reactivate, even with the repairs I made."

The doors opened, revealing a massive facility that appeared to be built specifically to cater to the whims of a madman. Automated machines were constantly at work constructing one thing or another, the staff were focused on trying to run programs that most of them didn't know how they could even work in the first place, and in capsules lining the walls were prototypes for the many, many Iron Man armor variants, watching over the room like steel sentinels. And within a containment chamber in one of the corners of the room, X laid on an operating table with several large holes in his torso, the various repair machines around him currently powered off. Zero's gaze locked on X and refused to budge as they continued to approach him.

As they got up next to X, Tony spoke up, "What were you doing, anyway?"

Zero stayed silent for a minute before replying, "We were hunting down a Maverick- our term for a rogue robot- named Sigma. We and a few others had him cornered, and X charged in to attack. Sigma fired a few shots back, and usually, it would've been nothing for X to dodge. But…" he paused again before continuing, "The Merge happened at that moment. The last thing I saw before ending up in the middle of your city was X getting hit several times with Sigma's blasts. But they shouldn't have done this much damage…" He continued to stare at X in silence.

Tony rubbed his chin in thought for several seconds, and then responded, "Well, my best guess is that whatever caused the Merge might have temporarily brought down most technological defenses for a split second, in your friend's case making him more vulnerable. However, there is a chance that he might've sustained a lot of this damage from the Merge itself. It's too early to tell at this point, since we have no idea what caused it in the first place."

Zero didn't reply, and the inventor put his hand on the robot's shoulder, "I promise Zero, I'll do whatever it takes to fix up your friend. In the meantime, do you know where the rest of your team went?"

Zero shook his head, "X and I were the only ones to show up in this city. I don't know why, but the Merge ended up splitting us up, and I can't get into contact with any of them." He let out a low growl, "And Sigma is still out there."

Tony sighed "Well, I know you don't sleep, or at least not like we do, but get some rest anyway. You've had a long day." After several seconds, he added, "Don't worry about X. We've got the best techs working on him around the clock, and I've called Mr. Fantastic to come over and give me a second opinion tomorrow morning. He'll be back in top condition in no time."

Zero turned to Tony and gave him a curt nod, then gave X one last longing gaze before leaving the room.

Once Zero left the engineering bay, Tony turned back to the robot now lying on his table. So much advanced tech stored in there. He had to be careful. He turned to one of the techs nearby, "Have you guys completed the full-body scan yet?"

"Yeah," said the wiry scientist, "It's hard to tell this early on, but we think we can repair him. More importantly though, we think there's a good chance that we can replicate some of the tech in him with what we have on hand."

"Excellent," replied Tony, "Just make sure to be careful. Don't install any prototypes we make into the Iron Man suits until I've had a chance to test it myself. The last thing we need is stuff blowing up in my face." With that, he went towards the elevator. He had to have a chat with Peter about an idea he came up with to gain public support.


	4. Chapter 4

[Author's Note: Hey, not dead yet! I just had some real crazy stuff going on in my life the past few months, and the fic had to wait. But I'm glad people are actually reading this thing! Hopefully, I'll be able to update more often now]

"Alright, I'm here! This better be important!"

MODOK was irritated, even more so than usual. That morning, one of the AIM surveillance bases situated near the border of Wakanda had reported a break-in by a superhuman attacker, who according to reports had managed to kill over two-thirds of the staff before being subdued by security. Unfortunately, this meant that MODOK had to listen while a very nervous and battered security officer gave him a debriefing over the telecommunicator. Though the man was too far away physically to telepathically read his mind, MODOK could tell from his voice and the way he was grabbing at the collar of his bright yellow uniform that whatever news he was about to hear wasn't going to be good.

"W-well sir," the man began, "I assume you've already read the basic report-"

"Of course I have, you moronic baboon!" MODOK screeched, "How the hell did you let the intruder destroy our vibranium stores? Do you know how hard it is to get a good supply of that stuff? You said he was attacking with his bare hands! How can you be so incompetent as to let something happen under your watch that ISN'T PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE TO DO?"

The man gulped, "To be fair sir, he didn't actually destroy the vibranium. But he did release some biochemical agent into the area that is preventing us from retrieving it safely. Everyone that goes in-"

"Do you think I care about safety?" MODOK interrupted, "Do it unsafely if you have to, just do it!" The statement was followed by an awkward silence as MODOK breathed heavily, attempting to compose himself. The security officer fidgeted uncomfortably as MODOK closed his eyes, and then started to speak again, this time enunciating every word he said in a barely contained rage, "I want that vibranium back, peon. Either you do that, or I will make sure that this biochemical agent is the LEAST of your problems." He stroked his chin for a second in thought, and then added, "On second thought, I'll send a team myself to get a sample of that stuff. Might come in handy later, especially if we can replicate it." He raised a brow, "What did you say it did?"

"W-well, they… they became this blob," the man replied, "Of tentacles. That won't die unless we torch it. And they're strong too. Had to seal off the whole area to keep them from getting out."

MODOK grinned, causing the poor officer to shudder in fright, "VERY interesting, Nate…"

"Actually, my name is-"

"DID I SAY YOU COULD TALK? Anyway, I can think of some uses for something like that" MODOK sighed, "A shame that the man who created it had to die. He would've made a great bioweapon developer for AIM…"

"A-actually sir," the security officer piped up, "he's still alive in containment. I could-"

"What?" MODOK screeched again, causing the guard to flinch, "Why didn't you execute him! We need that body for SCIENCE!"

"He surrendered to us!" The man retorted, "He said he would be willing to work out a deal, if he could talk to you first!"

MODOK glared at the officer in yet another awkward silence. After what seemed like hours, he finally sighed and waved his hand at the screen non-chalantly, "Fine. Let me talk to him."

Sighing in relief that he no longer had to deal with this madman, the officer typed a few commands into the console, before having his image replaced with one of a man with slicked back blonde hair dressed in a black trench coat. MODOK noted that the man looked perfectly normal apart from his bright red eyes with pupils that were similar to a cat's. He suspected that this was due to a mutation, more than likely self-inflected in an attempt at physical perfection. The red-eyed man glared at him before speaking in a strict voice, letting his words drag on in the air, "So, you are the Machine Designed Only For Killing I've heard so much about in my short time here. You have quite a… terrifying reputation amongst your men."

"It's MODOK to you, Cro-Magnon!" MODOK chuckled to himself as he noticed the man's eyebrow twitch in restrained anger at the insult, though he was disappointed that he didn't react more.

"Quite a temper. Name calling will not get you anywhere, you know."

MODOK rolled his eyes, and then spoke up, "So, I understand you wanted to talk to me?"

"I do." The red-eyed man replied, "My name is Albert Wesker. I was formally employed with the Umbrella Corporation, whom I am almost certain you never heard of, as a researcher, field operative, and double agent. About four days ago, I had appeared in the area you refer to as Wakanda. After evading the local law enforcement, I started to put the pieces together on why my situation had changed so… drastically. Based on the information I was able to procure from the news articles that I have seen, there appears to have been some dimensional concurrence that is being called 'the Merge'. I had broken into your outpost intending to make it a base of operations for myself and a colleague of mine. However, as you can see, a change of plans is necessary."

"Interesting…" MODOK said, "And I assume that superhumans are much more uncommon wherever you are from? Thus accounting for your superiority complex?"

Wesker nodded, "Correct. I was attempting to create more before a BSAA agent named Chris Redfield intervened. I tried to contact my superiors at Umbrella with your telecommunicator, but from what I can tell, the Umbrella Corporation no longer exists, which means I am a soldier of fortune without an employer."

"And that's where I come in?"

"Yes. Give me access to your laboratories, and I will make bioweapons the likes of which this world can only dream of. All I ask for in exchange is allowing me to take certain… 'liberties' with my research."

"Aha!" MODOK exclaimed, "A fellow man of science, like me! Very well, Mr. Wesker! I am naming you head of the base you are in! We'll have a trial run, and if you do well, you should rise in the ranks quickly!"

Wesker smirked, "I am certain I will surprise even you, sir."

"No easy feat let me tell you that! Oh, and one more thing before I go. First thing I want you to do is to kill the chief of security for not following base defense protocol. He'll be the sweaty one who was talking to me a few minutes ago. Well, bye now!" MODOK turned the telecommunicator off, then began thinking out loud, "Now, what to do with all that vibranium once I get it back… oh, I know! I wonder if we can graft vibranium into panthers…" He began to run the simulations, grinning maniacally in the light of the computer consoles around him.


	5. Chapter 5

[Author's Note: Quick note before we start: Due to people really getting into the idea of the whole Civil War aspect, I have decided to forgo the time skip and stick to this time period in Marvel history. While I'll need to edit several of my original ideas, this should be more than doable, though I need to get one last plot thread out of the way before we go full-blown Civil War like everyone seems to want. Hopefully, you'll like this one. Anyway, enough with the chatter, back to the story! Extra-long to make up somewhat for lost time]

"Where do you think they're taking us?"

Jill managed to pull her eyes up from her navel and turn to face Chris, looking with suspicion among the blue-clad men on either side of them. Since they were released into their custody, the soldiers had not answered any of their questions, only telling them that they were with SHIELD and that someone called the Director wanted to speak to them about their positions in the BSAA. The two of them, along with the young African woman that Chris had introduced to her as Sheva, were now loaded onto an air transport heading to an unknown location against their will. Jill let out a low sigh. She did not expect things to get any better at this point.

She jolted in her seat a bit as Chris put his hand on her shoulder, "Jill? I asked you a question… you ok?"

Jill nodded, "Yeah, I'll be fine…" Ever since they had gotten that… thing off her chest, Chris had been more than a little paranoid about her well-being. She subconsciously pulled up her jacket to cover the scars left on her chest and continued, "I don't like our odds. We've been detained in a foreign nation that sprang up out of nowhere for close to three weeks now, and when we are released, it is to an organization that, again, sprang out of nowhere. They refuse to acknowledge our credentials, they seem to severely underestimate both the Las Plagas and Wesker, and on top of all that, they have us outnumbered and outgunned." She shrugged, "Only thing that prevents me from thinking we're about to be locked up in some crazy bin is that this 'Director' lady apparently knows about the BSAA and is willing to hear us out. From there, who knows?"

Sheva's head peeked out from the other side of Chris. Jill barely knew the woman, and didn't know what to think of her yet. But Chris seemed to trust her, and that was enough for Jill. "What about this 'Merge' they keep talking about? Do you really think that these other universes have converged with each other?"

"Dunno," Jill replied, "I mean, it just sounds like some cheap sci-fi story to me."

Chris turned to Jill and raised a brow in disbelief, "I can't believe you can say that with a straight face after everything we've seen Umbrella pull…"

"Umbrella never had interdimensional portals or laser guns, last I checked."

They were interrupted by a shout from the cockpit, "We're approaching the Helicarrier. Prepare for landing."

"Odd," Sheva said, "I didn't feel us descending at all. Did either of you?" The other two shook their heads as the plane landed on the runway, then slowed to a halt surprisingly fast. The soldiers pulled Jill out of her seat and placed handcuffs on her. Since she had been experimented on by Wesker, Jill had noticed that nothing felt as binding as it used to, and the cuffs were no exception. In fact, flexing her arm muscles a bit, she was almost certain that she could snap the cuffs and incapacitate at least two of the guards before they even knew what was going on if she wanted. _Better not show my hand just yet, _she thought to herself, and let them lead her to the bay doors along with Chris and Sheva.

However, as the bay doors opened, Jill realized just how much she underestimated this SHIELD organization. She quickly saw that the reason they didn't feel a descent was because they hadn't descended. The Helicarrier, as they called it, was in the air, a flying fortress with a top like that of a naval aircraft carrier that soared across the night sky as if it were on the calmest sea. As they were lead across the roof, she saw that the whole thing was held aloft by four gargantuan turbines that made so much noise that she could barely hear herself think. She glanced over at Chris, who gave her a rather large smirk. She could hear the snarky statement he no doubt wanted to say in her head, _I bet -they- have laser guns. _She simply gave him a glare that told him to can it.

They were brought inside the Helicarrier through a door that lead into the lower decks of the fortress. The metal corridors snaked through the complex in what appeared to be a rather erratic fashion, but the men guarding them appeared to know where they were going. Eventually they stopped in front of a door labeled _Maria Hill: Director of SHIELD. _Shortly after one of the guards knocked, the door slid open, and they were face to face with a rather stern looking woman with short brown hair. She turned to the guard and said in a stern voice, "I want to speak with these three privately. You are dismissed." The guard saluted, and then he and the others left the three of them alone with Hill. She gestured into her office, and they all entered, the door closing remotely behind them.

The office itself did not look as lived in as Jill would have expected. Everything seemed to have its own place, to the point where Jill wondered whether this woman had some sort of OCD. The thing that caught her attention next was the giant screen on the wall behind the desk, most likely used for video conferencing by how it was set up. There were smaller consoles scattered around it, as well as Hill's personal computer, all of which were far beyond any technological level Jill was familiar with. She could make out that some of the smaller ones were showing personnel files of several individuals. While there were too many for her to read them all at a glance, she was able to make out the names _Rogers, Steve, Cage, Luke, _and _Drew, Jessica._ She also noticed a lack of any sort of family photos or other personal effects of any kind. She concluded that either this woman had just been promoted, or she had no social life. _Maybe both_, Jill thought to herself.

Director Hill sat down at her desk, then barked out, "Sit." Jill, Sheva, and Chris complied, managing to pull up three plastic chairs to the front of the desk. When they were seated, Hill continued, "As you may already know, I am Acting Director Maria Hill of SHIELD, a global defense organization dedicated to protecting the world from global terrorist organizations and superhuman threats…"

"Excuse me," Chris interrupted, "'superhuman'? Like Wesker?"

Hill nodded, "Yes, like your 'friend' Wesker. And as you'll find out very soon, he's not the only one that you'll have to worry about anymore, nor is he the strongest."

Sheva was the next to speak up, "Wait, so you're telling us that in the span of three weeks, Wesker went from one of the only superhumans around to part of a group large enough to be irrelevant?"

Hill shook her head, "I don't think you understand. We didn't come into your universe. You came into OURS. And you are far from the only one, and because of this happening at the WORST possible time, I'm currently sitting on a powder keg ready to blow the collective asses off of everyone on this planet!"

Jill shifted uncomfortably in her seat. The situation was worse than she had thought, although in hindsight all the evidence pointing to them being the ones displaced. Still, it all just seemed so unbelievable. She took a deep breath to maintain her composure, and then spoke up, "And what is the problem you are having, other than the obvious one of integration?"

"You mean other than the fact that the numerous people and locations spawning, including your own highly-irradiated Raccoon City, are pushing the whole damn world to the edge of anarchy? How about the fact that more and more unregistered and outright dangerous superhumans are manifesting every day, and we have no idea where they come from or what they're capable of? Or maybe you would like to hear about how my own resources are currently spread paper thin trying to deal with all of this? On top of all that, I have a bureaucratic nightmare to untangle, of which you three are only a small part of!"

Sheva cocked her head in curiosity, "That's why you called us here, isn't it? Because the BSAA is just as jarring to you as your organization is to us."

Hill shook her head, "Not exactly. Your BSAA is effectively a scaled down and rather limited version of what we do. Yes, we deal with bioterrorist attacks some of the time, and we regularly find ourselves in rather odd situations, but we're a little more varied in what we face… which leads me to my next point." She opened the drawer of her desk and pulled out three ID tags, one for each of them, "While T'Challa was busy keeping you locked up, SHIELD effectively absorbed the BSAA into our organization. As of now, your BSAA credentials are no longer valid, and you are all official agents of SHIELD. Welcome aboard."

This was the last straw for Chris, already pent up from being detained and disregarded for weeks. He stood up from his chair, and started shouting at her angrily, "You don't have the authority to just shut down a UN organization like that! The BSAA-"

"…is redundant," interrupted Hill, "You and Ms. Valentine's little pet project did the exact same things SHIELD does for the UN, only more limited. You might be angry now, but you'll learn that working for us will be far more rewarding." She glared at Chris, "But don't you dare yell at me like that again. Like it or not, I am your boss now, so sit down, shut up, and take orders like a good soldier boy should."

Chris looked like he was about to continue arguing with her, but Jill stood up and put a hand on his shoulder, "Chris, what's done is done. We can't change that. Please, just sit down." Chris turned to face her, and after a couple moments, sat down. Jill sat down next to him, and then gave him a small nod that to Hill looked like a nod of approval for him calming down, but that Jill could see by the smirk on his face that Chris correctly interpreted it as _That bitch totally deserved it, though._

Jill turned back to face Maria Hill and asked, "So, what's our first assignment?"

"I want you three on crowd control and surveillance," Hill replied, "It will give you a chance to familiarize yourself with our world, as well as allow you to start gathering intelligence on any new superhumans we might have missed in the Merge before the war starts up again."

Chris seemed to have calmed down somewhat, and cocked his head, "War? What war?"

Maria Hill sighed in exasperation, "I don't have time to go over every detail now, but the short version is that the United States recently introduced a law saying that all superhumans had to register with the government for accountability so that if they went crazy on us, we could track them down. Some of these 'heroes', led by none other than Captain America himself, decided they no longer like playing by the rules, called the law unconstitutional, and started a guerilla campaign in an attempt to get the law reversed."

"That's crazy," Jill said, "I know firsthand what happens when a person with that kind of power has no accountability. They abuse it, and then try to force their superiority on others." She shifted in her seat again, unconsciously rubbing her scars again. She realized that whatever this law said now applied to her as well, but she reasoned that if it kept more Weskers from slipping through the cracks, she wouldn't mind signing some forms saying she was now a freak.

Hill nodded, "Exactly my point. Luckily, a significant number of heroes agreed with me, and were actually starting to win against the rebels before the Merge happened. Now no one wants to think about the damn Registration Act anymore until things stabilize, even though I keep saying that it would HELP to have some centralized information database of all these new superhumans. But if I push it anymore, I lose Stark's support, and as much as I hate to admit it, the Registration Act's as good as dead if both he and Cap are against me."

Sheva leaned forward and spoke up, "Do you have any idea what caused the Merge?"

Hill shook her head, "We have a few guesses, but so far we've turned up blank. Our sensors didn't detect any spikes in interdimensional energy at the time the Merge began, and so far, we haven't found any portals that could be conceivably causing rifts to open. Some of our scientists think that it might be-"

Hill was interrupted by the intercom on her desk lighting up as a young man's voice came through, "Director Hill, we have a huge problem in New York. You're going to want to see this transmission, right now."

Hill swiveled her chair towards the huge monitor on the wall behind her, "Bring it up on the main screen." The screen turned on, and Sheva let out a gasp. Jill didn't blame her, as she couldn't believe what she saw either.

Most of the screen was taken up by an image of a large green man with muscles so gigantic that Jill thought at first that it was a joke. He was dressed in a manner similar to what she would imagine a barbarian to have dressed like, with a silver headband, metal-plated pants, and shirtless save for a steel arm-long gauntlet with spikes going down it. He appeared to be in the middle of a grand speech, and his voice rumbled like thunder, barely holding back the fury of the storm behind his words, "…But your 'heroes' sent a bomb. Killed a million people. Now this city will fall. You have twenty-four hours to evacuate. When I return, I want to see Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, and Doctor Strange…"

The monster bent down to pick something off of the ground, "And if they're not here…" He came back up, and held up a man in a black and white spandex costume and what looked like an antenna on his forehead, though it was severely bent, as the man himself looked like he was beaten to death. The green man continued, "…I'll do this. To what's left of your whole stinking planet." Now it was Hill's turn to let out an audible gasp at the sight of the man, and Jill had a feeling that this she wasn't the type of woman to have that kind of reaction unless things had gone seriously wrong. The green man threw the body down on the ground as the transmission cut out.

There was almost a full minute of silence before Chris spoke up in a hushed voice, "Who was that?"

Hill took a deep breath, and then answered in a shaky voice, "That, was the Hulk. And we are now all officially screwed."

[I know, I know, a LOT of talking. But next chapter will have an awesome fight scene, I promise. Also, to those who say that World War Hulk doesn't happen until AFTER Civil War, you're right, but think of it as a combination of the delays in Civil War's events caused by the Merge and just the differences between universes that sort of sped it up. I have a reason for doing this, I promise.]


	6. Chapter 6

"GRAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The Hulk stood over the smashed remains of the Hulkbuster armor that Tony Stark had tried to fight him in. A futile effort on his part, but his resistance only made Hulk angrier. Here he was, the man who was responsible for exiling him, the man who gave him everything, then cruelly took it away. And still he tried to appear as the hero. But at least he proved that no one could stop the Hulk now.

And yet… Hulk looked back up, down the ruined street of New York, and saw a sight all too familiar to him. A large group of heroes, an army's worth led by Captain America himself, were running up to where he and Stark had crashed. And among them… 'his' own cousin, Jen Walters, and Sampson. Even those he had once trusted were now against him, turned by those who had sent him to the stars. He let out another roar of anger as he shoved the metal wreck of the Hulkbuster armor aside and approached the group.

His sudden approach caused the approaching heroes to skid to a halt. A black man near the front that the Hulk didn't recognize yelled out, "Well, if we're gonna do this, let's do it! He's just one guy after all!"

_Shows how much they know, _Hulk thought to himself.

A man in gold armor not unlike the gladiators that the Hulk had acquainted himself with on Sakaar stepped forward, wielding his giant axe with both hands, "Agreed Cage. I am through wasting time. Avengers…"

Captain America placed an arm over Ares' chest, "Wait… we can still solve this peacefully." He faced Hulk and bowed his head, "Hulk, I know that we have had our problems in the past, but I agree that what Tony, Reed, and Strange did was inexcusable, and borders on a war crime. But look around you, Hulk." He gestured towards the ruined city, "The people who lived here had no part of what happened to you. By causing a fight like this, you are punishing them as well."

Jen stepped forward to stand next to the Captain, "He's right, Bruce. This place is a mess. And you know that no matter what, I will stand by you until the end. But we have to do this right. We can have them stand trial, show the world what they did to you and the others."

The Hulk looked down at the ground in thought. He was angry. Angrier than he ever had been before. But he realized that what they were saying was true. Though the people of Earth feared him, it was not the planet he wanted revenge against. Just the four. He hardened his gaze and turned to face Jen, "I want them brought before me. Now."

Jen was about to object, but Captain America spoke up first, "Are you going to kill them, Hulk? Will you promise me that they will be able to stand trial for what they had done, and be judged for their actions?"

Hulk did not answer. He had never planned to kill them… at least not right away. He wanted to prove that he was in the right first. But if he left the heroes in charge, they might find a way to mess it up somehow. Make sure that those _murderers_ got away with what they did to him. And their justice… even if they were fairly tried, they wouldn't be able to _pay _for what they did. Not how the Hulk wanted them to.

Captain America spoke up again, this time in a soft plea, "Hulk, you were in space. You hacked our communications. Surely you have seen the mess that things are in right now. What you are planning to do… could destroy the world."

"Stop this," Jen added, "and we will ensure that they pay for what happened to you."

The Hulk was quiet. He did not know what to think. He did not what to break this world, at least not yet. Vengeance drove him, not merely blind hatred. Perhaps negotiations were still an option. Perhaps-

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud that emanated from between them. Hulk looked upon the bloodied, beaten body that was before him, and clenched his fists in rage. He recognized the ash-grey man who now lay before him: Hiroim the Shamed, one of his own Warbound. Dead. The anger from before flooded back into him with a vengeance. _Of course. They were trying to trick me._

He prepared to charge at the group before him when something impacted the back of his head. He turned, and nearly stepped on the crimson head of Elloe, another one of his Warbound. He growled, and turned to face the one who was foolish enough to anger him so much.

Down the street, close to where he had left Stark's armor, was a dark-skinned man wearing a grey cloth robe tied at the waist by a length of rope. His neck was adorned with large prayer beads, and his eyes glowed red in the darkness. The Hulk shouted towards him, "YOU! You are the one who killed my Warbound?"

The man did not move, but merely shouted back, "I came to this city looking for an actual challenge! They had accepted my challenge, but even together they were not enough to stop me!"

The Hulk tensed up, his anger barely contained as he inquired, "And the others? Miek? No-Name? Korg?"

"Dead," the man said in a growling monotone, "They were weak, so I made sure they died like the pathetic scum they were."

That was the last straw for Hulk. No one insulted his Warbound like that and lived. With a roar, he charged down the street and attempted to deliver a haymaker punch. At the last minute, the man front-flipped over him, then attempted a drop kick from above. Hulk intercepted however, and grabbed the man by his leg before hurling him against a nearby skyscraper. The body crashed through a window on the front of the building, and he heard a loud crash as the body impacted the wall inside. The Hulk leapt into the building after him, and approached the body on the ground.

The Hulk stood over the man, and was amazed to find that he was still conscious. Hulk reasoned that any normal man would've been killed by a throw like that. Then again, he was used to fighting those that weren't normal. The man coughed, and then smirked, "Finally…"

Hulk only had a second to wonder what this meant before the man clenched his fist and wreathed it in bright purple flames. He proceeded to deliver an uppercut directly to Hulk's chin. The Hulk crashed through the ceiling of the room they were in, and then proceeded to continue flying upwards, crashing through room after room, until he finally crashed through the roof, 60 stories up. He continued to ascend farther above the city, before finally arching downwards and slamming into the street below and creating a gigantic crater in front of the group of assembled heroes.

The Hulk stood back up slowly, almost as shocked by what happened as the large group behind him, who all instinctively started to back away. Hulk turned to face the building again, which was already starting to crumble. The man walked through the front doors and nonchalantly punched a large piece of rubble falling on him hard enough to pulverize it. Hulk could see that the man was now glowing with a blood red aura that darkened his skin, one that managed to unnerve him to the core, and that his hair had inexplicably gained bleached white streaks in it.

The man laughed menacingly as he shouted, "You are a rare one! Very strong and very tough! You are one of the few that are truly worthy to face Akuma! Now let me show you the full power of the Satsui no Hadou!"

Akuma fired three large purple fireballs, making impact with the Hulk's chest before he could react. Hulk screamed as the fire seared his flesh, and was knocked backwards into the crater. Managing to regain his footing, he looked up to where Akuma was coming from, only to find that he had vanished. Suddenly, several hard blows hit Hulk in the back as Akuma pounded on him mercilessly, before finishing off with a series of electrified roundhouse kicks, sending the Hulk rolling up the side of the crater and back into the street.

The Hulk righted himself as Akuma, now more demon than man, leapt out of the crater after him. Hulk grabbed a rather large piece of slab and threw it directly at Akuma, who simply blasted his way through it with another fireball. Before he could react, the Hulk delivered a large punch into Akuma's gut, sending him soaring over the skyline. Hulk tensed his legs before managing a gigantic leap to chase after him.

* * *

><p>Jennifer Walters watched her cousin leap after the man who called himself Akuma. Though she didn't show it, she was more frightened than she had ever been before in her life. One Hulk was bad enough when he was too angry to control, but if someone from what she was guessing was one of the other dimensions involved in the Merge could match his power…<p>

She was interrupted by a weak and broken voice coming in over her transceiver, "Jen… are you… Jen…"

She flipped on the transceiver and responded, "Tony? You're alive?"

"Barely…" came the reply, followed by a groan of pain, "You got a sec? I need you for something important."

She glanced over her shoulder at the others. Cap was busy directing everyone to group up and follow the Hulk, though a few of the heroes seemed justifiably unnerved by the idea of continuing to follow the fight. Jen figured that she could catch up pretty quickly if she was needed, and started to walk towards the wrecked Hulkbuster armor, "On my way…"

When she approached the twisted wreck of red and gold metal, the first thing she did was rip off the reinforced helmet, now barely holding together after the beating the Hulk gave it. Tony's face was barely recognizable underneath the bleeding and bruising that had taken place. She growled at him, "You better have a damn good explanation for what you did…"

"I know," Tony replied, "and I'll explain it later… just… listen. I need you to… dig through the plating on the right hand. There should be… a panel near the wrist with a… big red button. Hopefully it's… still intact. Tear it out."

Jen tore off the plating on the right hand, and dug through the wiring until she came across the panel she was looking for, and tore it out, "This?"

Tony nodded, then winced, "You're the only one here… strong enough to use it that I trust…"

Jen cocked her head, "What is it?"

"A new weapon Reed and I developed recently… well, the beacon to teleport it to you, anyway. I was going to use it once I had weakened the Hulk, but…" he coughed, and Jen could see blood trickling out of his mouth, "…obviously that plan went to hell pretty quickly…"

"What does it do?

"It's pretty much a giant gun that has a matrix of nine arc reactors that… will fire simultaneously, with an added… boost from some plasma tech from one of the other dimensions… thrown in for good measure. It should… be more than powerful enough to knock Hulk out… without killing him. I call it… the Proton Cannon."

* * *

><p>Hulk landed in Central Park, close to a crater that Akuma's body had made on impact. Akuma himself was nowhere to be seen, however. Hulk turned quickly, attempting to find his target. <em>Did he run? After all that?<em>

His question was answered when he felt a sharp kick hit him in the back, sending him hurtling forward. This time, Hulk prevented the combo from going any further by backhanding Akuma as he approached to continue the assault. He rushed after the flying body, only to be met with shock as Akuma kicked off a nearby tree and delivered a flying kick to Hulk's face, staggering him. The Hulk managed to right himself as Akuma delivered several hard jabs to the chest, and then delivered a headbutt that knocked Akuma back, giving him some room to maneuver.

Akuma growled, before clenching his fists and charging forward, delivering a series of flaming uppercuts to drive the Hulk back, before shouting "Metssatsu…"

Hulk charged forward as Akuma shouted "…AGYO!" Hulk was blasted back by a storm of purple fire that scorched his entire front side. Hulk screamed until the fire finally dissipated. Smoking, but still standing, he winced as Akuma charged forward, slamming his palm into Hulk's stomach and sending him reeling. Akuma then attempted to close the gap between them, but Hulk ripped a nearby tree out of the ground and whacked him away. As Akuma landed on his back, Hulk stomped his foot on the ground, the shockwave causing Akuma to be knocked back into the air. Hulk leapt up and used both his fists to spike Akuma back down to the ground, leaving a crater that flattened several of the trees around it. Hulk landed in time to see Akuma stand up.

Snarling, Akuma shouted, "Enough! I will end this NOW!" The red aura around him proceeded to intensify, nearly blinding the Hulk, as Akuma struck a pose, with one arm thrust in front of him and the other one raised behind his head while he balanced on one leg. Hulk stepped forward to attack, but suddenly a red symbol appeared over Akuma's head, and he vanished.

* * *

><p>Jen arrived at Central Park with the others just in time to see Akuma vanish before the Hulk. She wondered for a split second what the hell just happened before Hulk was consumed by a bright purple flare. Jen shielded her eyes from the light as she heard a merciless one-way beating go on. In only a couple seconds, it was over. Jen uncovered her eyes, and gasped at what she saw.<p>

Akuma was standing over the prone form of the Hulk, who had multiple bleeding sores in his body. Small purple fires were still burning around the body, though they were quickly dissipated on their own. But what worried Jen the most was that the Hulk didn't move. He didn't get up. And Jen wasn't sure if he was even still alive.

Akuma didn't show any emotion as far as Jen could see. He panted and stared at the body for almost a minute. Finally, confident that his opponent was down, he let off a small huff, "Just as I thought… I am the strongest fighter there is." He turned around and started to walk off. Jen tried her best to fight back her tears.

_Bruce…_

Suddenly, there was a loud roar as Hulk scrambled forward while he started to stand. Akuma barely had time to turn around before the Hulk grabbed Akuma's face and whipped his entire body over his head, slamming Akuma into the ground. Before Akuma could react, Hulk let out another roar as he began slamming his fists into Akuma's prone body like a gorilla.

Hulk started to shout at Akuma as he continued to beat him, "You think you are strong?!" He slammed his fists into Akuma, and the shockwave was enough to send Jen and the other heroes reeling, with a few of the weaker ones being outright thrown backwards. "You think you know what a true warrior is?!" Another slam, and this time, the trees nearby were flattened by the force of the blow. "You are nothing more than an arrogant…" Another smash, and the trees further out were knocked down and a nearby bridge collapsed, "…puny…" another smash, "…HUMAN!" He slammed his fist into Akuma's chest, and the shockwave knocked down every single tree still standing in Central Park, and Jen was sent flying backwards from the blow.

Akuma groaned as Hulk snarled and slammed his fist into him again, and this time there was the sound of breaking bones, "You are before the Worldbreaker, human! Entire WORLDS tremble before me! You are weak! And I will make sure that you will forever remember that the Hulk…"

He stomped on Akuma, and a loud crunch was heard as Akuma let out a tortured screamed, "…is THE STRONGEST THERE IS!"

Jen managed to right herself as the force of the stomp created a fissure that caused her to lose her balance again. Slamming into the ground, the transceiver buzzed as she heard Tony's voice once more, "I felt that from here… what's going on?"

Jen got on her knees as she replied, "Its Bruce… he's pissed!"

"Well obviously!" Tony retorted, "And what about the other guy…"

"I don't know… he did a number on Bruce, but…" Jen replied, as Hulk growled and turned to face the heroes, "I think he's done for…"

She heard a sigh from the other end as Tony replied, "Ok, well it's now or never. Remember what I told you to do?"

Jen nodded, even though Tony couldn't see her, before replying, "I think I got it…" She held the panel that she tore from the armor in her right hand. She then held out her arm as if she was aiming a gun one-handed, and then pressed the button.

Almost instantly, a shimmering blue light appeared over her, and a large silver cylinder materialized above her. Jen barely caught it as it landed in her arm, and she was surprised at how heavy it was. She managed to maneuver her hand to the trigger before replying to Tony, "Are you sure this won't kill him?"

"If anyone can take it, it'll be Hulk," Tony replied, "Now quickly, before he recovers, FIRE!"

Hulk started to approach Jen with hatred in his eyes. She winced as she whispered, "Sorry, Bruce…" and pulled the trigger.

Jen was almost knocked backwards from the sheer force of the cannon firing. The Hulk let out a roar as he was enveloped by the blue energy, which appeared to pass right through him uninterrupted. The weapon continued to fire for several seconds before the beam died down. The second it was over, the Proton Cannon disappeared in the same shimmering blue light that brought it there.

Jen and the others could only watch as the Hulk stood in place for what seemed like forever, his body smoking from the energy blast. Finally, the Hulk let out a low moan before collapsing onto the ground. A few seconds later, he started to transform, and before long Bruce Banner was laying face down in front of them.

Jen and Cap ran up to him, along with Luke and Sampson, and stood over the body. Jen knelt down and gently placed her hand on Bruce's back. She let out a sigh of relief, "Thank God… he's still alive."

Captain America nodded, "Good… but you realize that we'll probably have to lock him up, for who knows how long. We can't have this happen again."

Jen nodded somberly, and then looked down at her cousin. Poor Bruce… he was blinded by rage, and let himself go. And now he would probably never see the light of day again.

Ares' voice rose from the crater, "Hey! This guy's still breathing! What should we do with him?"

Captain America shouted back, "Leave him on the ground! He's probably extremely hurt! We should wait for S.H.I.E.L.D. to get here…"

Almost on cue, Jen heard a fleet of air transports approaching, as well as the familiar sound of the Helicarrier's turbines. Looking up, she saw them approaching from the horizon. Despite knowing what was probably going to happen to them next, Jen let out a sigh, and she couldn't help but think, _About time you showed up. Now I can finally sleep…_


	7. Chapter 7

"The devastation that we have suffered during what is now being referred to as 'Hulk Day' has shown us here at S.H.I.E.L.D. that the Registration Act is needed now more than ever. With a proper way to have catalogue and find superhumans on the field, we might have been able to organize a proper defense sooner and avoided the needless destruction and bloodshed that had ensued, as well as prevented the unfortunate incident that started it in the first place. Therefore, as director of S.H.I.E.L.D., I officially reinstate the Superhuman Registration Act in its original form as of now. On suggestion by Tony Stark, S.H.I.E.L.D. is also giving a 24-hour grace period to register. Any superhuman, native to this universe or otherwise, that registers themselves as superhuman within the next 24 hours will be granted full amnesty for any actions they might have done related to either avoiding or opposing the Registration Act. I strongly urge any 'heroes' who are part of this 'resistance movement' going on to do so, as after the grace period has ended, S.H.I.E.L.D. will do everything in its power to capture and detain any unlawful superhumans once more. And as for the hero who stopped the Hulk known only by 'Akuma'…"

_Hero… bah!_

Akuma scowled at the news footage of the short-haired woman being shown in his room. He so badly wanted to do more than that, to shut off the infernal box, then fight his way out of this facility that these S.H.I.E.L.D. people were keeping him in. But he couldn't even do that in his current state, covered from head to toe in hard plaster and metal, unable to move any part of his body except his eyes. Even if he could move, he was in an enormous amount of pain, which alone would have confined him to the singular bed that was in his room. His eyes darted around the room, attempting to take in where he was.

The room he had woken up in was filled with medical equipment, mostly machines to measure his heart rate, breath rate, and blood pressure, as well as IV drips to keep him hydrated since his jaw, like almost every other bone in his body, had been shattered in his fight with the Hulk. Looking out the one window in his room, he could see the clouds moving in the sky below, and the moon that provided the only illumination to his room at this hour of the night. Seeing nothing else of interest, he attempted to do the one thing he was still capable of doing in this situation: meditate. He rarely did it since his days training under Goutetsu. He remembered his old master saying Akuma never truly had the patience for it. He was right, of course, but now he didn't need patience. He just had no other options.

He closed his eyes and attempted to calm himself, to bring himself to a peaceful state of mind. But even if that was not contrary to his own nature, the unbelievable pain his was in only served to shatter any notions of calmness that he had. He only felt rage. Rage at the Hulk, who had humiliated him in combat. Rage at the Warbound, who barely offered him a proper warm-up for the fight to come. But more than anything, Akuma's rage was directed at himself. He had made the mistake of underestimating his opponent, and turning his back on them before assuming they were dead. _A rookie mistake. _And now because of his mistake, he was stuck in this room. He, the strongest warrior in the world, was now stuck in a hospital bed, being fed through a tube and having his limbs held aloft by metal harnesses, while doctors told him to his face that he may never even be able to walk again, much less fight. And he had no one to blame but himself.

He growled underneath his full-body cast, and the small movement alone was enough to send even more pain shooting through his body. Why didn't the Hulk finish him when he had the chance? Then at least he would've died like a warrior, instead of a weakling. He should have crushed Hulk's head when he had the chance. He screamed in frustration, and though his voice was muffled and his body was in pain, it only served to fuel his own rage. He continued to scream until he ran out of breath, and then all was silent.

"Frustrating, isn't it? To have so much power, but be so confined by your own mortal body."

Akuma's gaze shot towards the source of the voice. In the far corner of the room was a tall white haired man partially hidden in the shadows. As he stepped into the moonlight, Akuma could see that the man was wearing a blue trench coat with ornate red designs twisting down the chest and a ruffled undershirt to match. On his hip rested a gold-hilted katana still in its black sheathe. He walked up to the side of Akuma's bed and stared into the slit in the cast that showed Akuma's eyes, "I admit, however, that I am impressed. The power you showed while fighting this 'Hulk' was nothing short of spectacular. But in the end… it wasn't enough."

Akuma wanted to scream at this intruder, to crush this man's bones for even daring to toy with him in this manner. But in the end, all he could do was glare at him menacingly. The man saw the look that Akuma was giving him and sighed, "But of course, you can't respond, can you? Oh, very well. Here… a gift."

The man raised his katana and tapped it against the casts surrounding Akuma's head. The plaster cracked almost instantly, and then shattered, exposing Akuma's head once more. Moving his mouth around, Akuma realized that while the rest of his body was encased and broken, his head was fully healed. He immediately spoke up, "What did you do?"

"I gave you a taste of my new power. Power that can be gifted to you, for a price."

Akuma raised a brow. What was this man blathering on about? "Who are you?" he asked, "And what do you want from me?"

The man pulled up a chair and sat down next to the bed, "You can call me Vergil. I come to you with an offer of partnership. You have impressed a very powerful being, Akuma. One that wants your assistance to bring about their victory."

Normally, Akuma would laugh this man out of the room, would claim himself to be the most powerful being in the world before crushing his skull. But this Vergil could heal him with only a touch, and his recent beating by the Hulk taught Akuma that there was far more power to be gained in this world than he originally thought. So instead, he simply asked, "How powerful are you talking about?"

Vergil leaned in close and said in a low voice, "One with the power to merge worlds."

Akuma's eyes widened as Vergil continued, "The Merge was merely the first step in a grand plan aiming for power beyond your imagining. Everyone else is simply a piece though which victory will be achieved. All you have to do is decide, right here, right now, whether you will be a pawn or a player."

Akuma turned his head to fully face Vergil, "And what do you want with me?"

"Simple," Vergil continued, "You have shown raw power far beyond the average human. With a simple boost of power, no one on this world can stop you… but there are a few people in this world that can make our plans infinitely more difficult. One has already been dealt with, but the others must be dealt with quickly and harshly, before they can affect our plans."

Akuma couldn't help but scoff at what this man was trying to say, "So you want me to be your attack dog, is that it? Why not do this yourself."

"Because I have other duties I must attend to. And the others involved have their own part to play. But know this, Akuma: these men that need to be dealt with are incredibly skilled fighters and incredibly powerful, a worthy challenge for the man who faced down the Hulk. And if you accept our offer, the power you will receive will dwarf even the Hulk's." Vergil stood up once more, "However, you have the option to refuse. If you do, I will walk out of here, and you will never see me again."

Akuma was quiet for a long time. Finally, he spoke, "Alright, I'll work with you and your master, for now. But when you heal me, do NOT give me that power. At least not until after I have done my job."

Vergil raised his brow, "Oh? And why's that?"

Akuma gave him a dark grin, "This world offers many worthy challengers. I want to have some good fights before I crush them all."

Vergil gave him a curt nod, and then drew his sword, which started to glow with a dark red aura. With a single slice, Vergil slashed through the cast binding Akuma to his bed. As he sheathed the blade, the casts fell apart, and Akuma felt his strength returning to him. Leaping off of the bed, he tore sensors and IVs from his body before sending a fist through the heart rate monitor. Clenching his fist, he turned to face Vergil once more, "So, what now?"

"Now, we take our leave. I will teleport us out of here, just as I entered, so that we are not followed. Then, our real work will begin."

Akuma walked up to Vergil, who he could now see was at the very least a full head taller than he was, "So, who's the first one on my list?"

"He's a man I am assuming you are very familiar with; to make sure you are truly up to the task. I assume you will know where to find the man called M. Bison."

Akuma spat on the ground, "Him? I've killed that coward once, I can kill him again. I thought you said that I will have an actual challenge!"

"Consider this a warm-up for what is to come. He could be considered the weakest target, after all." Vergil placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, "Rest assured Akuma, soon we will have the power to bring the people of this world to their knees. We will be the heralds of a great and terrible power. One that will quickly become our own."

Vergil stepped forward and placed his hand on Akuma's shoulder, and with a blue flash, the two of them vanished, leaving the empty room behind.

[Author's note: Woo! Two chapters in a week! And for those of you wondering, Vergil's new duds are actually based on the 4th (I think) costume option for him in the game, to show the power gifted to him by his benefactor. I have much more to say, but I'll save it for a super-long author's note to come out in the next day or so.]


	8. Chapter 8: Return

"Gentlemen, I believe you all can guess why I have requested your presence today."

The five men seated around the table had not been in the same room with each other for almost a year now. Differing ideologies, conflicting schedules, and personal problems had all kept them separated from one another. But each one knew that though they had their differences, they had to do their best to remain in contact with one another. Because together, they were far more powerful than they ever could be alone. They all knew that knowledge, whether of people, science, technology, or magic, was the most powerful thing in existence. It was for this reason that these five men gathered in one of the many confidential meeting places they had arranged for just such an occasion. It was here, in this hidden conference room, where they would discuss the greatest problem their world has ever faced.

One of the men spoke up with a sneer, "I do not like my time wasted Stark, so let's skip the pleasantries and get to the point."

Though Namor was technically the oldest of the men gathered here, he was ironically enough the brawn of the group (relatively speaking), and the youngest looking. Though ruler of the seas and a shrewd politician in his own right, Namor was also impatient and had a short temper, which at times got on the rest of the group's nerves.

Tony gave Namor an annoyed look, "Alright then, to the point." He stood up from his seat at the head of the table and began to speak, "Three and a half months ago, our world experienced an event unlike anything it had ever seen. Almost at once, several alternate universes fused with our own, in an event that has now been officially named 'The Merge'. This has caused massive worldwide instability politically, socially, and geographically. In the chaos, S.H.I.E.L.D. has effectively taken control of the world's infrastructure, and has so far been the leading group in both rebuilding the world and cataloging everyone who has appeared and disappeared in the Merge."

"And meanwhile," said Dr. Strange, "they have used the situation to justify their crusade to force every superhuman to register their identities with the government."

Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four leaned across the table towards the Sorcerer Supreme, "Now hold on, Stephen. Just because you are bitter about the Registration Act doesn't mean it is automatically evil. As I have told you before, I ran the numbers again and again, and registration is the only way to-"

"I'm stopping both of you right now before this gets ugly," Tony said, "I won't have this meeting devolve into another argument about the Registration Act. I asked you all here so that we can deal with something far more important, not bicker among ourselves like children." He gave the two of them a few seconds to collect themselves, and then continued, "Not even a week later, the Hulk came back to Earth, and while we were able to stop him, he caused massive damage to New York and nearly killed several of our own, including Black Bolt. The fact that he could not be here today should tell you just how much of a threat the Hulk had become in his time away from Earth, and how close of a call the entire thing was for us."

Reed spoke up once more, "Yes, but ultimately our group, excluding Charles and Namor, was responsible for what happened."

Tony frowned, "Yeah, but it could have ended a lot worse if we didn't have help stopping him." He then turned to face a bald man with sharp facial features and a brown suit sitting by Namor near the end of the table, "Though that reminds me Charles, I haven't had a chance to welcome you back to Earth. Happy to see you could be here."

The older man nodded at Tony, "I appreciate the gesture. I am fortunate to be back at a time where my students need me the most. Of course, when there is time, I would like to know your reasoning for launching the Hulk into space."

Namor growled, "Trust me, it isn't worth your time." He turned to face Tony, "And like I told you before, Stark, stop telling us things we already know and get to the point already."

"Alright, alright," Tony took a deep breath before he resumed talking, "As I've already said, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been handling reconstruction and documentation. What they haven't been able to do, however, is figure out how this entire thing started in the first place. That is where we come in." He looked across the table, resting his gaze on each member of the group in turn, "I know that everyone here has been looking into what happened, because it is in our nature to do so. It is high time we pool together what we know, and hopefully find something that S.H.I.E.L.D. missed."

Reed stood up from his chair, and placed a small holo-projector in the center of the table, "I actually brought something to show all of you anyway, so I guess I'll start. Back when this all started, Tony told me that S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists were unable to detect any interdimensional energy or portals at the time of the Merge. I admit, at first I was unable to find such energies either." He pressed a button on the side of the projector, and a 3D model of the Earth came up out of it, cloaked in a light blue aura, "This is what the Earth looked like in the weeks after the Merge, according to most interdimensional sensors. The light blue indicates little to no interdimensional activity. Quite frankly, that should be impossible given the scale of what happened. That's when I decided to scan for something else."

He typed something into the control console in his arm, and the globe became covered in a swirling white miasma, "This is what I found. At first, I thought it was a massive amount of cosmic radiation, but it seemed off somehow. So I refined the scan, and this is what happened." The white miasma quickly split into a rainbow of different colors, "I found several dozen energy signatures all over the planet, and they are showing no signs of dissipation, which means whatever's causing them is an active force, or at least a self-sustaining one."

Xavier furrowed his brow, "What kind of energy is this?"

Reed's eyes lit up with excitement, "This is where it gets interesting. You see, each universe has its own unique background radiation, sort of like a fingerprint. When a dimensional portal is opened, said radiation leaks out of the other dimension into our world, and vice versa. Most scanners for dimensional activity work by isolating this fingerprint and tracing it back to its source." He pointed towards the colors, "Each of these colors is from another dimension. But they aren't isolated, which is why S.H.I.E.L.D. can't find an origin point."

Namor spoke up, "But it looks like a light show on there. Certainly someone other than you should have noticed something this obvious by now. Even if they couldn't tell what it was, there's no way this radiation could have been missed."

"There is one way," Reed said, "See, S.H.I.E.L.D. was so busy scanning for portals and pockets of interdimensional energy that they never bothered to scan for OUR universe's radiation signature."

Tony's eyes widened, "Wait, if you're saying what I think you're saying, then whatever this is…"

"…has fused our universes entirely."

Reed paused for a few seconds, and then continued his explanation, "The real problem is that we've been looking at this all wrong. Every interdimensional physicist on Earth is trying to find a source of energy, or a tear, or some way to send everyone back where they belong. But there's nothing to go back to. Somehow, our entire universe has become some sort of amalgamation of every universe that was involved in the Merge. What I find most interesting, however, is the question this poses. If our universes truly merged… then why are we still ourselves?"

"You mean, why have we not fused with the citizens of the other worlds?" Tony asked

"Exactly," Reed responded, "We are still ourselves. And while some people have indeed become an amalgamation of different versions of themselves, the majority of people we've seen have also remained the way they were before the Merge, regardless of which universe they originated from. Yet judging by the number of universes that have been involved so far, the Earth should be hopelessly overpopulated if even a fraction of the population remained themselves."

"Isn't it obvious?" Namor said, "They're gone. Probably destroyed entirely." The others stared at him, "It's like you said. If everything transitioned over, we would all be suffocating on the bodies of others. I don't know about the land, but the seas aren't any more crowded than they were before. Which means the sea life from the other worlds never survived the Merge."

"Namor brings up a very interesting point," Xavier interjected, "I believe the real question we need to ask is not what happened to us, but what happened to everyone and everything that disappeared during the Merge. From what I've heard, the people of our world are still in the majority, which means a large portion of each world involved in the Merge just vanished. I'm not a physicist, but even I know that much matter can't just be instantly destroyed without a trace. If the original universes no longer exist for the missing pieces to remain in, and we can't find any evidence of mass disintegration on our end, then that means something else must have happened to them."

Tony nodded, "You're right, but it would still help if we had some idea of what happened to start all of this in the first place."

"I think I might have something to share on that end."

Dr. Strange had been staring at the energy pattern ever since Reed had first shown it to them. Now that he had broken his silence, everyone's attention was directed towards him. "I took me a while, but I believe I have noticed something peculiar about the movements of the energy patterns." He started pointing at areas around the globe, "See these eddies of energy? They aren't randomly placed. Several of them correspond to sites of ancient sources of magical power. Of course, that isn't the case with all of them. The other ones slowed me down, but I eventually realized that some of them correspond with sources of mundane power as well. Particle accelerators, antimatter generators, even a particularly large hydroelectric dam or two. Most normal magic wouldn't involve such sources, but I believe that what we are looking at is the result of an incredibly powerful ritual that used technomancy."

Tony looked at the map, then back at Strange, "I can't tell you anything about the magic stuff, but you're right on the tech areas. I think I even recognize the locations of a couple of my facilities on here."

"So are you saying that someone caused the Merge intentionally?" Reed asked.

"Hard to say," Strange replied, "All I can tell from looking at this right now is that the radiation is being affected by the ritual. For all I know, it could just be a coincidence. I'll need to do further research at the Sanctum Sanctorum before I can figure out anything else."

Tony nodded at Strange, "Definitely do that, and let me know what you find out as soon as you can." He turned back to the others, "As for the rest of us, we need to do our parts to follow what leads we can on the Merge. Hopefully, we can find who or what did this and try to fix it. You're all dismissed."

Namor left almost immediately, while Strange and Reed began examining Reed's model more closely. Xavier began to leave, but Tony grabbed his shoulder, "Charles, I need a favor. Do you still have Cerebra?"

"I'm not going to help you find unregistered superhumans, Tony."

"I swear, it's not about that. I need you to find one specific person. Shortly before you came back, S.H.I.E.L.D. lost track of Akuma, the guy who almost took down the Hulk on his own. The weird thing is, he shouldn't have been able to get out of bed, much less escape from the Helicarrier. I mean, Akuma's bones were basically pulverized one minute, and the next his hospital room's empty. No one's seen him since."

Xavier rubbed his chin, "I see... and you are afraid of someone that powerful running around without any supervision."

Tony lowered his voice as Reed and Strange walked by them to leave, "Look, I've seen footage of this guy in action. Hell, I was there when he first showed up. Akuma isn't like the Hulk. He's ruthless, bloodthirsty, and actively seeks conflict. It's someone like that I'm worried about. His insane power and apparent healing abilities that'd make Wolverine jealous just makes it even worse."

Xavier closed his eyes in thought, then sighed, "I don't need my telepathy to know you're telling the truth about this man. I'll see what I can do. Searching for non-mutants with Cerebra isn't as easy, but if he's as powerful as you say, I should be able to do it. Any information you can send me about him would help me greatly."

Tony patted Xavier on the back, "Thanks a lot. I'll make sure my next bout of philanthropy is directed towards the Xavier Institute for this."

Xavier gave a small smile, "I'm not sure that'll matter as much nowadays, but thank you regardless."

Though they may not have been on the best of terms, all five men who met in secret that day knew that for the good of their world and several others, they had to work together once more.

The Illuminati had returned.


	9. Chapter 9: Big Red

"Do New Yorkers know how to make a pizza, or do they know how to make a pizza?"

Dante took another bite of the slice of pepperoni pizza in front of him, a large grin plastered on his face. A young woman sat on the other side of the table, though unlike Dante she did not seem to be too concerned with the extra-large pizza situated between them, appearing to be more fascinated with the construction crew repairing the building across the street. His other companion, a blond woman clad in black leather, leaned back in the chair next to him, having already eaten her fill. She gave Dante a sidelong glance, "I have to say, it's better than what we usually get."

"Very true," Dante said with a nod. "Hey Trish, before we leave, ask if this place delivers. I'd do it, but when I got up to go to the bathroom earlier, the owner gave me the stink-eye and I do NOT want to deal with that again."

"Oh, what's the matter?" Trish asked mockingly, "Are you afwaid that the big scawy pizza man will hurt your feelwings again?"

"No, I'm just 'afwaid' that we won't get the special 'sexy lady' discount if I'm the one asking. Speaking of, either of you willing to pay the check? I'm a little strapped for cash myself..."

"Actually," began the other woman, adjusting her sunglasses as she turned to face them once more, "That's exactly what I wanted to you two about."

Dante took another bite of pizza as he raised a brow, "You mean the 'sexy Lady' discount? I meant 'lady' in the general there, but if you want to do it, hey, be my guest."

"No." Lady leaned forward in her chair, "I mean, about how business has dried up since the Merge happened."

Dante shrugged, "Hey, don't blame me." He took another bite, and started talking with a half-full mouth, "It's not my fault the shop ended up in Superhero Central. I mean, why pay a demon hunter to solve your problems…" He swallowed, "…when there's fifty guys in spandex willing to do it for free?"

"Which is why you need to stand out from the competition," Lady explained. "Look, I've had success of my own in other places around the world, but if you're dead set on staying here, then I have a couple suggestions that might help out."

Dante put his hands behind his head and leaned back in the metal chair, lifting the front two legs off of the ground, "Alright then, fire away."

Lady took a deep breath, "For starters, I would suggest you emphasize your experience. I doubt anyone in this city has credentials like yours when it comes to our profession. Also, it wouldn't hurt to mention the whole 'Son of Sparda' thing. People here seem to be reassured by people with supernatural powers as long as they're straight-forward about it, so mentioning that would probably boost your clientele overall. You could probably even use your status as a registered superhuman to get away with calling yourself a licensed demon hunter."

Dante held a hand out in front of her, "Slow down, slow down! I like a lot of what you're saying right now, buuuut… we might need to adjust it a bit." He let the chair drop back down on all four of its legs with a clang as he leaned forward and muttered under his breath, "For example, I'm not sure the whole 'registered superhuman' thing's gonna work out…"

"Why not? Like I said, if you're upfront about it, people will… wait a minute." Her eyes narrowed beneath her shades as Dante averted his gaze from her, "Are you telling me that you still haven't registered?"

Dante scratched the back of his head, "Well…"

"You've had MONTHS-" Lady caught herself as the owner, a large man standing behind the front counter, glared at her, and dropped her voice to a harsh whisper, "I told you to do this months ago! Why haven't you?"

"I was going to at first, I swear," Dante said, "But then I sorta… forgot to do it, and by the time I remembered, it'd been so long I figured it'd be easier not to. Besides, I'm only half-human, so technically I shouldn't count, right? Now if they ever institute half-registration, then I'd be on top of that."

Lady sighed, and turned to Trish, "Please tell me that you registered, at least."

Trish held up her hands in defense, "Hey, I'm not human at all. That law definitely doesn't apply for me."

"I can't believe you two!" Lady hissed, "If you are found out, you'll be thrown who knows where!"

"Whoa, calm down Lady," Dante said, "It's not like I barf acid or shoot lasers out of my eyes. No creepy men in suits have been knocking at my door, and business has been slow, so I'm not fighting demons in the streets or anything. I've been keeping a low profile for a while now. It's fine."

"You call THIS keeping a low profile?" Lady asked in exasperation, motioning at Dante and Trish's attire, "You're walking around shirtless in a bright red trench coat, and you didn't even bother dyeing your hair any kind of natural color."

"Hey, white's a natural color!" Dante interrupted.

"AND in case both of you didn't know," Lady continued, "head-to-toe leather is not something people wanting to keep a low profile wear. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the owner's been giving you the stink-eye because he thinks you're a pimp."

Dante scratched his chin in thought, "You know, that would explain quite a bit…"

"You sure it's not because of THAT?" Trish asked, pointing to Rebellion, Dante's ornate broadsword that he left leaning on the empty fourth chair at their table.

Lady glanced at the sword, "No, I think it's just why we haven't been kicked out yet."

Dante straightened up in his chair, "Look, just two days ago I saw a guy flying across the sky while he was on fire and he didn't cause mass panic on anything. I actually think I'm pretty boring around here, relatively speaking." He sighed and stared out the window.

"He has a point," Trish said, "We're not nearly as crazy looking as some of the other people around here. Besides, you're one to talk, Ms. Pinstripe Short-Shorts."

"Excuse me?" Lady asked, "This is relatively mundane compared to your skintight biker chick wardrobe."

"I'm just saying, glass houses and all that, you know?"

"Fine, you have a point. But when we're done here, you two are going to get registered immediately. Then we can get back to work for a change…"

Dante's brow furrowed, "Hold up."

Both women turned to face him as.

"Something wrong?" Lady asked.

Dante kept his eyes locked across the street, watching a small girl in a red dress darting into an alleyway. He picked up Rebellion and sheathed it on his back, "I'm going to check something out. Meet you two back at the office, ok?"

"Hey!" Trish yelled at him as he made his way to the exit, "What about the check?"

Dante pushed open the door and waved over his head without looking back, "'Sexy lady discount', remember? You'll be fine!" And with that, he walked out the door and ran across the street.

"Enough of the games! You don't want my soul, so what do you want?"

Peter Parker stood in the inky blackness that surrounded him on all sides, trying to comprehend the full scope of what he was considering. His wife, Mary Jane, was next to him, even though she had been halfway across the city moments ago. And standing in front of both of them was the tall red frame of their tormenter, and their last hope, Mephisto.

The demon gave them a wide grin, "What I want is greater than what one paltry soul can provide me. What I want is the one thing in the universe that is truly greater than the sum of its parts and tastier than any single soul I could devour. I want that which gives you joy, that which sustains you in your moments of greatest despair. The source not of your power, but of your strength, your dreams, and your passion." He clenched his fist, "I want your love. I want your marriage!"

Peter snarled at Mephisto, "Well, let me tell you where you can shove your offer-"

"No, Peter, wait!" MJ cried, gripping at his shoulders, "If he has the power to do what you say he can do, let's at least hear him out." She turned to face the demon standing before them, "What do you want, Mephisto? What are your terms?"

Mephisto gave her a small grin. "Ah, you're obviously the sensible one," he said, drawing out the words and letting them echo in the darkness, "Let's just say this: enjoy the world as it is for as long as you can. For you will only have it for one more day. You will not consciously remember this bargain, or this moment, or the life you lived up to this point. But there will be a very small part of your soul that will remember. That will know what you lost. And my joy will be in listening to that part of your soul screaming throughout eternity. You have until midnight tomorrow to say yes. At that instant, you will lose either your marriage, or-"

Mephisto stopped. He cocked his head and raised a brow as if in thought. Then his smile dropped from his face, to be replaced with a look of annoyance. "I believe," he said, his words taking on an acidic tone, "we have an uninvited guest. How did you even find this place, much less get this close without me noticing?"

A beam of light appeared several meters behind Mephisto, illuminating the white-haired man in the red trench coat that was standing there. "I have a knack for this sort of thing," Dante said with a shrug.

Mephisto turned to face him, "And just what do you want from me?"

Dante slowly started walking forward, "I'll admit, at first I was just curious. Managed to get close enough to get the gist of what you're trying to do. Deal with the devil sort of thing, except instead of souls, you want… what, their wedding album?"

Meter and Mary Jane simply stared in silence at the rather strange scene unfolding in front of them. Neither of them was entirely sure whether the newcomer wanted to help them or screw them over even further.

Mephisto snarled, "I want to see their souls suffer from being apart from one another. Not that you would understand the ways of a true demon, half-breed. "

"Oh, so you actually noticed! I'm touched." Dante stopped when he was a good three feet away from Mephisto, "But to be honest, I not all that interested in your convoluted reason for doing this. See, business has been slow for a while now, and I figure 'what better publicity for a demon-hunter than the severed head of Big Red himself?'"

Everyone else stared at Dante in disbelief.

"You intend to try and kill me?" Mephisto finally asked in a low voice.

"Yep," Dante replied.

Mephisto laughed, "You can't be serious, child! I am one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and you intend to fight me with what, that magic sword you carry around? You might as well come at me with a butter knife given how pitifully weak you are compared to me."

Dante pointed at Mephisto angrily, "Ok, you know what, Red? I'm doing this one pro-bono, because you just made it personal."

Peter stepped forward, "Hold on a minute, we were in the middle of something-"

"Trust me," Dante said, "whatever problems you're having, you two are better off sleeping in a ditch than making a deal with this guy." He rubbed his chin, "Though I'm tempted to let you guys go ahead with this anyway, Just to see where this is gonna go. Because honestly, Red here seems to suck at making evil bargains."

"You don't understand," Mary Jane said, "We're trying to-"

Dante waved her off, "But hey, I already said I'm doing this, so I guess I better get started…"

"Foolish child!" Mephisto exclaimed, "You know not what powers you're dealing with! I am Mephisto! The powers I wield can reshape reality itself! I am the Prince of Lies and Lord of-"

Mephisto was interrupted by a bullet flying into his forehead. Dante spun Ebony in his hand as he pulled out her sister gun Ivory, "Enough talk! Are we gonna get started here or what?"

Mephisto snarled in frustration, and was about to attack the demon-hunter. But at that moment, inspiration struck. Here, right in front of him, was an opportunity to cause true corruption and suffering.

He turned his head to face Peter and Mary Jane, "I want you to remember this moment. Because of this man, I am forced to pull my offer from the table. The death of your beloved aunt is now assured."

Dante raised a brow in confusion, "Wait, were you two trying to-"

Dante suddenly found himself propelled backwards out of the blackness. He flew through the air and out of the alleyway, colliding into the side of a car parked on the street. With a groan, he crumpled to the ground. As he stood up, trying to tune out the car alarm now blaring in his ear, he saw a horde of red imp-like creatures coming out of the alley, sending the pedestrians that had begun to congregate near Date into a panic.

"Well," Dante said as he drew his sword, "I was hoping Red would fight me himself, but guess you'll do!"

He charged forward at breakneck speed, and sliced the first imp in half. He then drew his pistols again and fired at a few that were trying to chase after the now-fleeing public. Suddenly, Dante was caught off-balance as another one leapt on his head and bit him in the scalp. With a grunt of pain, Dante tore the Imp off of his head and flung it into the car that he had crashed into not too long ago. It impacted the door with a bang, and then disappeared in a puff of red smoke, leaving behind a sizable dent in the side of the car.

Dante turned towards the alleyway and saw more imps trudging out. "Is that all you can dish out?" he said, leveling Rebellion's blade at them, "Because I'm just getting started!"

By the time Lady and Trish found where Dante was, the city street around the alleyway was torn up beyond belief. Broken glass and twisted metal littered the streets to such a degree that the two of them had to leave their motorcycles behind and continue on foot. About a block in, they found Dante in the middle of a massive swarm of red imps, his body moving between his targets at a speed that made him little more than a red and black blue to the naked eye. The mob had taken to swarming in a ring around him, puffs of red smoke continuously appearing within the center as more imp were slain. While the horde was slowly thinning out, it looked like the fight was still a long ways from being finished.

"Dante!" Trish yelled at him. He didn't reply.

"DANTE!" She yelled again. Still no answer.

With a sigh, Trish held out her hand and conjured a mystic circle to appear in front of her. She flicked her wrist, and bolts of electricity shot out of the circle and homed in on the horde, destroying all of them simultaneously.

Dante skidded to a halt, and the two women could now see that the fighting had left him covered in grime and dirt. He looked around in confusion for a sign of what had happened to the horde that was assaulting him only seconds before. Then he spotted Trish, and sighed, "Aw man, really Trish? Not cool. I thought we agreed on no more kill-stealing."

"Oh please," Trish replied, "You were toying with them anyway. Next time, answer me when I'm talking to you."

Lady surveyed the area, "Those weren't any kind of demons I am familiar with. Who did you get angry at you this time, Dante?"

Dante sheathed Rebellion on his back, "Some demon lord calling himself Mephisto. He didn't seem to know a thing about me, so my guess is that he's not one of ours, if you catch my drift."

Lady nodded, "I see. Regardless, your fight with Mephisto's minions has resulted in quite a bit of destruction. What happened to keeping a low profile?"

"What can I say?" Dante replied, "It's been a while since I had a chance to let loose a bit." He patted Lady on the back, "So, shall we go and get registered now?"

Lady sighed, "I think it's a little too late for that, don't you?"

"Yeah, figured as much…" He stretched his arms above his head, "Ah well. I guess that means we should get out of here before S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up, huh?"

"Definitely," Lady said, and the three of them started to walk back to the motorcycles.

"You know," Trish mused, "I have been hearing things about a resistance movement to the registration act. You two want to see if we can find them, maybe join up?"

Lady shook her head, "No thanks. I think I'll just get my stuff from the shop and go back to freelancing. You have fun though."

Trish nodded, "Fair enough. How about you, Dante? Up for a little freedom fighting?"

Dante thought for a long moment, then shrugged, "Eh, why not? It's not like I got much else to do, what with the whole 'running from the law' thing." He rubbed his chin, "Wonder how much we can get them to pay us..."


End file.
